“Looking For The Ferrari” | Jeff Bain’s POTOMAC Experience
My name is Jeffrey Bain. I was third generation in an almost hundred year old pest control business called Bain Pest Control Service.
My grandfather emigrated from the Ukraine area in the early 1900s. He started as a window washer and brass cleaner and started there after doing roach work. I started in a service role so I was in the field and then I got into more of a technical role and I was still in my 30s.
My father said just go to town, get it done, and I trust that you can manage the business. That was when I started building the team that I thought could help us grow and also deliver the quality of service that I wanted to maintain.
The idea of selling the business wasn’t in my mind until about three years ago. Then I started talking to associates in the industry, other companies that had finished the process and sold their companies. I was looking for the Ferrari, not the Ford Pinto.
The one name that kept popping up was Paul of Potomac and what he had done to maximize their asset. So I hired the Ferrari.
I’m trying to kind of step back and relax a little bit more. When we bought the farm, the one thing I knew when I got here, I could relax, I could forget about the rest of the world. Because I still worry about my business, but less today than I did a month ago or six months ago or 10 months ago.
It was a good fit, it was fun, I enjoyed the process. Sometimes it was a little bit stressful but Paul and Franco and I got to meet PB (Patrick Baldwin) later on in the process — they’re very calming influences. They’ve gone through it enough and they knew I was anxious about a lot of things.
Paul has your back. He really understands how far he can push the strategics or the acquirers.
The truth is, the day we closed I was comfortable with who bought the company. I was comfortable with what Potomac did for me. They really made the process much easier. It gives them satisfaction to know that you walked away a friend and a happy client.
